Since 2018 article 2.3.2 of the Eurimages Co-production Support Regulations permits the use of the co-production percentages set out in the revised Convention on Cinematographic Co-production.

 What does this mean and which co-productions can avail of this option?

Most multilateral and some bilateral feature film co-productions fall under the European Convention on Cinematographic Co-production. This is a Council of Europe legal instrument which opened for signature in 1992, came into force in 1994 and has been signed by 43 European countries.

The co-production percentages set out in article 2.3.1 of the Eurimages Co-production Support Regulations are based on this Convention.

However, in October 2018 a revised Convention on Cinematographic Co-production came into force.

Among the important changes introduced by this revised Convention are new rules on the maximum and minimum participation percentages for multilateral and bilateral co-productions.

• For multilaterals, the maximum participation is now 80% and the minimum participation is 5%.
• For bilateral co-productions, the new maximum and minimum participations are 90% and 10% respectively.

However, these new percentages apply ONLY to co-productions where ALL of the countries participating in the co-production have signed and ratified the revised Convention.

If the co-production involves any country still using the 1992 European Convention then it is this older instrument that applies and the co-production participations must respect the percentages set out in Article 2.3.1 of the Eurimages Co-production Support Regulations.

In order to check which countries have ratified the revised Convention and thus whether the new rules on maximum and minimum participations can be applied to any specific co-production, please check the list on the website of the Treaty Office of the Council of Europe.